NAEP Scores Are In But Not Up

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Neal McCluskey, associate director of the Center for Educational Freedomnmccluskey@cato.org:

Today's report, "Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto NAEP Scores: 2005-2007" makes one thing very clear: Government control of education has put us on a road to failure. And no, national academic standards are not going to get us where we need to go.

According to the report, almost no state has set its "proficiency" levels on par with those of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the so-called "Nation's Report Card." Indeed, most have set them at or below NAEP's "basic" level. Moreover, while some states that changed their standards between 2005 and 2007 appeared to make them somewhat tougher, most did not. Indeed, in 8th grade reading all seven states that changed their assessments lowered their expectations, and in 8th grade mathematics nine of twelve states dropped their bars.

Some will argue that this demonstrates an obvious need for national curricular standards. But that is the opposite of the report's clear implication: Politicians and bureaucrats will always do what's in their best interest – keep standards low and easy to meet – and will do so as long as politics, not parental choice, is how educators are supposed to be held accountable.

Rather than continuing to drive headlong toward national standards -- the ultimate destination of the pothole-ridden, deadly, government schooling road – we need to exit right now. We need to take education power away from government and give it to parents. Only then will we be on a highway to the excellent education we want.

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